Troubling trends emerge at Pontiac High

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By Luke Smucker

Pontiac Daily Leader - Pontiac, IL

By Luke Smucker

Posted Nov. 13, 2013 at 11:58 AM

By Luke Smucker
Posted Nov. 13, 2013 at 11:58 AM

Pontiac, Ill.

Data compiled using grades of the recent semester at Pontiac Township High School shows 35 out of 181 current freshmen have at least one course failure, 26 had failures in core subjects and 20 had multiple failures. Rough data on students who don’t have the credits to be sophomores, but are attending the high school for their second year, showed 24 are in Algebra I again because they failed the course last year.

The principal led a discussion with District #90 Board of Education members on Nov. 11 regarding the transition of freshmen students from the junior high level to the high school level with what he considers to be “alarming results” in an effort to help raise awareness for the need of a freshman transition program. The data collected by the principal is similar to statistics for freshmen across the Nation.

“We can’t offer another class to those students because they are re-taking a class from last year,” he added.

The principal noted 19 second-year students are in general science or earth science and biology again because they failed that class last year and eight are re-taking English I. “What’s interesting is, if you were to look at math and where our kids actually perform, their grades are actually pretty close to where they perform on standardized tests,” said Bohm. “I am not saying I like that, but they are pretty close. It is very concerning to me and I believe we need to reduce that number.”

Across the nation, the transition from eighth grade to ninth grade is the most difficult. Bohm’s goal in offering the statistics was to open a discussion with board members regarding what the school is currently doing to help freshmen and what programs the district could possibly look into for the future.

“I see this as a research year,” Bohm said. “Next year will be a plan year and then we implement. We have about three years, but we want to do something. I just want to make sure we are doing everything we possibly can to meet the needs of the freshman, to acclimate them to the high school and prepare them for their future career. We are already seeing a difference, what we have is working. It may sound odd, but we celebrate when some of our students only fail a couple of classes each semester because before, maybe they were failing five, but now hypothetically they are only failing two — we are making those steps.”

The issue Bohm believes many freshmen run into has less to do with bullying and more to do with learning high school expectations. Students have voiced the notion that when they were in junior high, they knew they didn’t have to pass and they would still get to high school.

Page 2 of 3 - “They knew because of social promotion, they were going to be moved,” said Bohm. “Now, they don’t understand they have to have a number of credits to graduate. They get here and they do the same thing and they think that the teacher will just pass them through.”

Livingston Area Career Center Director Tara Graves added that there is often a misunderstanding among freshmen regarding the long-term implications of not passing a course during their freshman year.

“I have a lot of conversations with juniors or seniors who want to take classes for a specific position like radiology, but they can’t because they didn’t pass a class as a freshman,” she said. “They don’t see at 13 what failing that class will do to their schedule as juniors and seniors.”

This year, Bohm started a program called “Teaching Responsibility through Individualized Behavior Expectations.” TRIBE pairs incoming freshmen who may have behavioral tendencies with one of 17 teacher volunteers who will keep in touch with the students and their parents and will look at the student’s grades for signs of trouble.

“We are most definitely seeing improvement compared to previous years,” Bohm told the board. “Once the children are identified, we have sometimes two teachers in study halls and we have some professionals who are taking kids into another classroom and they are working specifically with them to get them on task. That’s what has been so great about it; we have all of this communication across the school to make sure that the students are getting the work in. The key is, our faculty has bought into helping our students succeed.”

In the future, he wants to add a transition program for freshman. The idea of a transition program is to help incoming students successfully move from grade school to high school and the principal said there are all kinds of programs out there.

“Some people will suggest a freshmen academy, or they might just have a transition class,” Bohm said.

Another idea that has been suggested involves mandating all freshmen to meet daily with an advisor with a time period built into their schedules. Bohm also suggested the freshmen could be taught by a specific team of teachers.

“This way, those teachers get to work together,” said Bohm. “They could get to know the kids and their nuances. We could have that group create some curriculum that goes across the board.”

Betty Murphy asked Bohm how something like an advisory period would be implemented.

“It’s like a homeroom,” Bohm replied. “You have an advisory period built into the school day. It could be part of a study hall session, but ideally one of the teachers who are part of the freshmen teaching team meet with the kids to talk about those interest inventory tests, their plan of study and their ideas for future careers — there can be all kinds of different topics.”

Page 3 of 3 - District #90 also held meetings with Pontiac District #429, to find out where their curriculum is, talk about how students are doing entering high school and how the high school could help the process. Some science teachers have even begun going out to the feeder schools to hold a lesson and work with the kids to create those relationships early on.

“We’re making sure we are working with them to work on science standards, but also to get the kids involved right now,” said Bohm. “I’ve been working with some students and will continue to do some research, but I’ve also been working with teams of teachers at schools who currently have freshmen transition programs. I’ve been able to collect some data on and create a comprehensive report and I plan to go through the curriculum advisory board as well as the District#90 Board of Education as this continues to unfold.”

While the time span may seem distant, the underlying goal will always be the same: to increase academic performance, increase student attendance, create a feeling of belonging, school spirit, culture and all of the positives that come with being involved in the building.

“We want to celebrate the freshman transition with positive reinforcement,” Bohm said. “We will decrease student drop out rates and the amount of students failing that first year of algebra, having to take it again as a sophomore and the feeling of being behind the eight ball when they become juniors.”